Back from Portland Pt II

So enough about the food in Portland, sheesh, makes me look like all I did out there was eat. (well.....)

I did get a chance to visit the really cool zoo out there, and explored the cavernous Powell's book store, and perused the many thrift/vintage shops.  There were lots of neat art galleries, underground comic shops, toy stores, and little niche boutiques that I was fortunate enough to check out on my downtime.

It was a breeze to get around the city once you figure out how to use the colored train system. It made it easy to get back and forth from the hotel to the convention and get to the many downtown areas of Portland AND they ran late so you had time after the convention let out to do some stuff after a long day of tattooing.

To me, that was the worst aspect of the working vacation: the work part. I'll quickly sum it up. The convention was slow, it was not well attended, and a lot of browsing and not many people getting tattooed. I know being an out of state tattooist is always a gamble and I always manage to at least break even tattooing nerds and gamers, but I'll count this as a loss. Very minimal entertainment, and not many people buying stuff that artists were hocking.

                                                           BORED.

That was the part that killed me. Every booth had FANTASTIC drawings, art, prints, specials, and solid portfolios. Which for some reason equals talented tattooist sitting around.

LOU's TATTOO CONVENTION TIP #1 If you attend a convention, please PRINT out and bring the reference of the piece you want tattooed with you. Artists who travel do not have printers and we can't properly trace an intricate, even simple thing, FROM YOUR PHONE. Take a few minutes and make the effort, you will be rewarded with a killer tattoo and an appreciative tattoo artist.

It wasn't all bad, I had fun, I met a lot of really cool people, I tattooed a crazy Cholo who was cool as fuck, and people really seemed to dig the new portfolio and work. I brokered a couple of guest spots so I'll keep you suckers posted on that.

I wish I was a little busier and tattooed a little more, but it was cool to be part of the Northwest tattoo world for a weekend.